The Seoul Metropolitan Government will revive its global urban competitiveness with the strategy of creating a charming city that can attract people, enterprises and investments, aiming to rise as a major city of the beauty industry with leading global trends. The Seoul Metropolitan Government will aim at expanding the K-beauty industry through the Seoul city brand and its power of influence with Korean culture, which includes K-pop and K-dramas. This expansion will be the foundation for the establishment of tourism packages and infrastructure for various experiences and consumptions in cosmetics, beauty, fashion, dining, and wellness.Accordingly, the Seoul Metropolitan Government will hold an online conference on beauty industry on Thu, Sep. 16 via YouTube to create a center for full-scale discussions on the branding of Seoul’s K-beauty industry at home and abroad. The conference will be held with no audience and be pre-recorded in consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic.The conference will be held under the theme “Branding Seoul’s K-beauty industry,” and will be attended by domestic and international experts and creators active in the fields of beauty, tourism and Korean culture who will present opinions and strategies for branding K-beauty in connection with Seoul and Korean culture.Mayor Oh Se-hoon gave a keynote speech and stated, “We see the Korean beauty industry as a future industrial engine of Seoul and as a key force that will initiate urban competitiveness, and we are in preparation of taking a leap as a central city of global beauty through various policies for development and cultivation.” Mayor Oh also stressed that, “The beauty industry coincides with the new consumer trend that aims for the emotional and well-being, and hence it is both a future industry where sustainable growth can be anticipated and a future employment industry that will create high value-added jobs.”Last year, Korean cosmetics exports saw a 16% increase compared to the previous year and ranked third in the world behind France and America. Seoul is also home to four Korean enterprise headquarters that rank in the top one hundred cosmetics companies in the world, and 45.7% of domestic cosmetics distributors are situated in Seoul. Hence, the city is appropriately a highly suitable environment for growth as a global beauty city.The Seoul Metropolitan Government also plans to develop various tourism products and tourism courses related to beauty and heighten Seoul’s recognition as a beauty tourism city by preparing cooperative programs with beauty creators and beauty flagship stores. Dongdaemun Special Fashion Zone, which was once widely known as Korea’s oldest fashion avenue, will be reborn as the new and revitalized Dongdaemun Special Beauty Zone that features things to see and enjoy that can only be found in Dongdaemun.The Seoul Metropolitan Government established the four future images of Seoul as a win-win city, a global city, a safe city, and a future emotional city through the ten-year Seoul Vision 2030 master plan. Cultivation of the beauty industry is one of the strategies made for the city to take-off as a global city.